As I recently passed the one-month anniversary since the launch of NESE HR Consultancy, I reflect on some of the key learnings and challenges my business has presented me with.
Having registered NESE HR Consultancy Ltd on 5 April 2022, following a redundancy in my permanent role, I decided to make my 10+ year dream of opening my own Consultancy a reality, and subsequently became an independent business owner supporting start up’s and small to medium size businesses, offering commercial HR advice and support.
Who would have thought that registering my company at Companies House was the easy part? No-one warned me that I’d be awake half the night for nearly three months scribbling down ideas that were really relevant and important to the business I wanted to create, such as branding, website and values, but that’s what happens … and now I’m proud to be able to say that those sleepless nights enabled me to create NESE HR, Smarter HR Solutions. Let me know what you think of the new website.
While I look back and reflect on the past few months, I ponder on what seemed like a BIG challenge, however, now seems like a “walk in the park”. I hadn’t quite realised the real challenge was yet to come…….
As an established HR professional with over 20 years’ experience, I find HR a way of life and have adapted to that world, however, sales lead generation, networking, presenting, along with business development is by far out of my comfort zone, and for sure a daily learning curve.
This has led to many days where I felt completely demotivated and unaccomplished as a business owner. Still working on those coping strategies! 😊
When you open a business, no one really tells you that being a business owner means you wear multiple hats. One which is the profession you qualified in; followed by IT, Accounts, Sales and Marketing, and Social Media, and then there’s the general Compliance and Logistics of running a day to day business. These are just to mention a few….
Managing all these tasks concurrently has been an extremely daunting experience, whilst trying to take on new clients to create financial stability.
My biggest learning curve was trying to master and pitch the perfect 60 seconds, especially when people say they don’t really understand what HR Consultants do.
Whilst I realise, I am growing each day, one key learning to date is not to hold back, or to hide behind my fears.
As someone recently told me, continue being resilient and never give up, as being a business owner has good days and bad days. This was a key learning for me as in recent weeks, I took the silence of emails to be personal, rather than just appreciating people are either busy, or don’t have an immediate need for your services at that moment in time.
One of the key valuable lessons to wrap up this blog is self-care. I think I envisaged having my first BIG client within the first couple of weeks, however I realise this to be an unrealistic expectation, and when I speak with those I network with on a frequent basis, it’s clear it can take months.
To conclude, please continue to see the benefits of resilience, self-confidence, self-care, and self-belief.
Keep pursuing your dreams, and don’t give up too quickly, for when the time is right, everything will slot into place.
Thank you for taking the time to read this blog and keep strong and positive always.
Franco
Founder and Owner
NESE HR
